disappointing result but interesting match. as i said earlier there wasnt benzema and juninho but it didnt matter anyway cos i was sitting too far to see the players clearly. but i could sometimes make out fred and grosso.

lyon had most of the possession and for the 1st half they were camping at val's half. created so many chances but couldnt score. the goalie either saved it or they knocked the ball on too far and another val player got there first or they missed. oh ya and dont forget the disallowed goal. i'm guessing someone fouled someone else but i'm not sure. yeah when the ref disallowed the goal middle fingers sprouted everywhere...

there were 2 englishmen sitting behind me and they were talking about arsenal. when toulalan's face appeared on the screen they were like 'oh arsenal wanted him' and began talking about our scouts. it was mostly arsenal this arsenal that but i couldnt really make out what they were saying. but i could definitely hear the 'fucker's that they occasionally said. haha.

i dont know if it's like that in the emirates but in the stade de gerland there's this loudspeaker guy (he isnt a commentator and he isnt an mc either. he's the guy who says 'fabio' and pauses to let the crowd yell 'grosso!' and he also announces the substitutions etc) and he kept singing lyon songs to keep the crowd going. there was once he was shouting so much his voice broke and it wasnt only 1 time!!! and he kept shouting, it was damn funny.

we were standing on the seats because everybody else was doing so. haha. here are some pics!!!!! i know you all love them!!



unrelated to olympique lyonnais but that's what we did yesterday in the printing museum.



train station. stade de gerland is the home of OL.

façade of stade de gerland.

view from my seat.

right i think that's all. it's 11.30 now and i desperately need to sleep. what's more at 5pm local time tmr it's the match against shit and i hope we're not going out. i know it has nothing to do with my need for sleep but yeah i'm going to sleep now. haha lame...

aye. benzema out, juninho out, a lot of key players out. then wtf am i supposed to watch later? i am no lyon fan and i dont watch french football so i dont know the other players. but dammit i was so looking forward to watching benzema play...

think tonight's game will be damn one sided despite lyon losing so many players. cos according to soccernet, valenciennes havent won a game since august.

but of course, THE match that i'm really really concerned about is our match against chelshit tomorrow...

http://gunnerblog.com/?p=1231

i have huge hopes for this guy!!!! come on cesc!!!! come on arsenal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

arsenal 1 dynamo kyiv 0

didnt watch the match because i thought it was this evening --" because the arsenal singapore forum said it was on 'wednesday'........................

anyway i found out why i can't upload photos. it's my card reader, dammit!!! i used ah huat's card reader and it worked. out of 165 pictures i uploaded 40. yeah i only choose the best...



lycée edouard herriot, ah huat's former school


our room (i share it with du xuan) photo taken in dim lighting and sans flash


flight from lyon to toulouse blagnac on easyjet airbus a319. here we're looking at a sunrise.


la garonne


some church that we visited in toulouse. it's blurry cos it's a long exposure shot and we were in a hurry so i couldnt retake it.


ariane 5 rocket replica in the cité de l'espace


grand parc miribel. we did some lame treasure hunt there and archery. archery is damn fun!!!!


dark clouds


destination sun. taken during the 3h bus ride to avignon.


some river


palais des papes.


it was damn frigging cold when i took this picture. cos we were near the 'door of the wind', haha!!!





nice scenery!!!! cos it's totally painted on...


we went to a silk making factory.









no more photos, so until next time, folks.

(in order)

#1 the weather in singapore
never again will i complain how hot singapore is because being damn hot is better than being damn cold. just now at avignon it was frigging cold plus the freezing wind - you could chop off my fingers and i wouldnt have felt it.

#2 my computer
i can do fuck all on ah huat's computer. fucking non-administrator account, i cant download anything and i cant upload anything. fucking shit.

the ultimate thing i miss most...

#3 my piano
ah huat's piano or should i say keyboard is for babies. not being unappreciative or anything but it's true. i hate electronic keyboards. what kinds of songs can you play on an electronic keyboard i ask you.

other than that i'm happy with my life in france. :)

a.net rejected my photo. yeah yeah yeah i know since it's my first photo that i've tried to upload and that it'd 100% be rejected cos the horizon's not level (i realised that to my horror after uploading) but still it hurts. and in the end the rejection reason wasnt the horizon but there was too much grain.



pfft. grain!!! my iso setting was set to the lowest level possible and there's still grain. fuck. i guess i have to edit it when i go back then, since there's no photoshop here.

The image quality of these photo(s) does not meet the very high standardsof Airliners.Net. This does not mean that it is a bad photo, but it doesmean that we think it has certain (possibly minor) flaws.

Don't worry, everyone has their photos rejected from time to time. Ourstandards are very high. It is and should be difficult to get photos accepted.

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah they're just indirectly telling you that your photography skills suck.

am back!! toulouse was extremely good!!!!!

we went to the airbus factory right after we touched down at blagnac. unfortunately i don't have any pictures because phototaking is not allowed there. beats me though because there are so many pictures of the a380 in blagnac on a.net.

we went to the assembly building and saw 3 a380s, SQ, EK and AF. the commentary was in french but i could understand some stuff like the number of people working in the factory (4000) and the height of the plane (8 storeys high).

then it was the ultimate surprise: we were going to see the concorde!!!!!!!!! 2 concordes in fact. concorde #1 and #9 the foxtrot charlie. we went inside the plane!!! but we couldnt take any pictures so i shall take some from a.net. oh how i love that website...







by the way i didnt just anyhow searched 'concorde' on a.net. these are the pictures of the one that i went up - concorde #9 aka foxtrot charlie, and they were all taken in toulouse blagnac.

we also saw the super guppy (although it's not in use now)

and the beluga (transport plane that delivers plane parts from england or germany or spain to toulouse for assembly)



lol this is quite funny. when we passed by the super guppy the guide said "there's the super guppy - the predecessor of the beluga". and i was there chuckling to myself because what she didn't say was "the beluga replaced the super guppy because the latter is made by boeing and people used to laugh at airbus saying that all airbuses were delivered on the wings of a boeing". get the joke?

when we went up the 2nd concorde we could sit wherever we wanted and listen to the guide. but no pictures and i've yet to find 1 of the interior of F-BVFC. the one below is the interior of G-AXDN in england.

it was so sad sitting in the cabin and thinking that this grand piece of human engineering has had seen better days. i could imagine feeling the engines roaring and seeing the curvature of the earth from FL600. and the aircraft body - which could get really hot during flight because of friction between the skin and the air - was now stone cold, as the plane stood silently by itself in the freezing french autumn. it's just wrong to let such a beautiful plane rot in a corner of an airport, albeit well known, knowing it will never find back its past glory again.

aye, mais c'est la vie.

we stayed at ah huat's mum's cousin's house for the night. the next day aka today we went to the cité de l'espace. it's basically a science centre but it focuses more on space technology. there was a replica of the rocket ariane 5 and the russian space station the mir. took some photos but i cant upload right now. when i get back to singapore i shall upload everything.

right i shall stop here now. good night!

right now there's no one at home. and i'm doing my own things at ah huat's room. and tomorrow we're waking up at 4am. why 4 am? because we're going to TOULOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

imagine my excitement. toulouse!!! for all those who don't know why i'm so excited, it's cos it's the home of my little airbus a380!!!!!!! yeah it's small and cute!!! and what's more, we're flying there!!!! so that means we're going to st exupery, and we're most probably flying air france, provided the pilots have stopped striking.

oh yeah!!!!

ah huat's comp is wonky. it cant read my card reader and my thumbdrive. i'm guessing it's cos i'm using a 'limited' account and i dont have sufficient privileges to do most things. cos yesterday i was using ah huat's account and i could upload my photos, as evidenced by my previous post. and right now she's not at home so i cant ask her to switch to her account. ah well.

cos i realised that that pic that i uploaded to a.net had some errors that will definitely make the pic not make the cut. lol. and i couldnt download picasa on this account.

we went to the lyon museum of fine arts just now. i'm not a fan of museums to tell the truth. i hate baroque period paintings. oh ya and the music too. but claude monet's paintings are damn nice.

romantic period >>> baroque period.

i have to tidy my suitcase now. bye!

i'm now in ah huat's house. i may make some typo errors cos the french keyboard is different from ours. for example, their keyboard is azerty and not qwerty. and that's only one of the differences.

the people in my group are quite decent. having a good time here.

my trip started well on the plane. because #1 i bought a set of 3 plane models and #2 i saw the most beautiful sunset that i had ever seen. really, sunsets look the best from 36000 feet.



boeing 747 as seen from t3


a380 taxiing for take off to LHR


my aircraft fleet


submitted this to a.net






i know, my camera >>> your camera hahah

oh i just remembered this post is about me surviving paris. it's damn cold i tell you. i underestimated the cold on the 1st day. and at the evening when i posed for pictures in front of the eiffel tower my teeth were literally chattering. i could feel them knocking against each other. it was one of he worst feelings i've ever experienced.

but it was all worth it cos i took many quality pictures. here are some of them...

louvre


what's that lurking in the background?




my hands were braving the cold just to take this shot


interior of notre dame


exterior


montmatre




feeling naughty?








view from our hostel. that white streak is the contrail of a plane.






f7.1, 1/1500


gate of versailles







it's 12.30 at night, i have to sleep now! although you might probably just woken up. more pictures to come!